A few days ago, a new National Pro-Life Congress was held in Madrid, organized by the Federation of Pro-Life Associations and San Pablo CEU University under the theme “From the Inside Out,” to reflect on the defense of human life and share some testimonies.

This Congress highlighted the importance of information and support for pregnant women, as well as the protection of life from conception. Among the testimonies was that of María Ángeles, mother of five living children and two deceased, lost before birth. In the room was a 13-year-old son who would not have been born had she followed the advice of a pro-abortion gynecologist.

She also reaffirmed a woman’s right to be informed and to make decisions without pressure. “The consequences of an abortion are very serious and accompany you for the rest of your life,” she stated, noting that they affect not only the mother and child, but the entire society.

The Congress, with multiple presentations and testimonies, emphasized the importance of supporting pregnant women and the need to promote a culture of life based on support, information, and hope.

Moses

I have long defended human life in the face of pressure from certain powerful people. The Book of Exodus tells of the oppression suffered by Jacob’s descendants in Egypt. They lived in slavery with cruel labor that made their lives miserable. To prevent the growth of the Hebrews, the Hebrew midwives were commissioned to kill any boy born, and to leave the child alive if it was a girl. But these midwives feared God and did not follow orders, stating that Hebrew women are more robust than Egyptian women and that by the time they arrive, they have already given birth. The book adds that “God rewarded the midwives, and the people grew and became very strong. And the midwives, because they feared God, also gave them families.”

It seems that Pharaoh dispensed with those women and ordered all his people to throw the baby into the Nile whenever a Hebrew boy was born. The story is well-known in its later development: a Hebrew woman gave birth to a baby boy and hid him for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she devised a way to save him: she placed him in a well-prepared basket to float on the Nile under the watchful eye of her eldest daughter. Thus, when Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe with her servants, she saw the basket stuck in the reeds and asked for it to be brought to her. She was amazed at the child, deciding to adopt the baby as her own. The child’s sister, who was still attentive to the current, witnessed the event and offered to give him to a woman to nurse. When this child grew up, he was taken to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him and named him “Moses,” in her native tongue, since he had been drawn from the water. An event that is reflected today in foster mothers and families, because everything has already been invented, and it is always possible to relive it through generosity.

The sacred book emphasizes that those Hebrew midwives feared God and the mother used ingenuity to save her child. As is well known, Moses grew up in a palace environment, with proper training, and later, amidst suffering, he was chosen to lead the march of the Hebrew people out of oppression in Egypt, walking with God’s protection amidst hardships toward the Promised Land, with so many vicissitudes recounted in this Book of Exodus.

Many families will remember that years ago, in anticipation of an upcoming birth, the cradle or nest was popularly called the “Moses basket.”

Promoting Foster Families

Support for foster families was also discussed at this Congress, as explained by Mariló Alfonso, a 50-year-old mother of two children committed to foster care. “We are not a conventional family, but a foster family,” she explained at the beginning of her presentation, highlighting the fundamental difference between foster care and adoption. “Foster care is temporary; we offer children a home and a family while their situation is resolved,” she noted, while adoption implies permanent integration into the family.

The Congress, sponsored by the National Association of Propagandists, noted that in Spain, more than 17,000 children cannot live with their parents and reside in foster care centers. Many of them, Mariló explained, could be in foster homes if more families knew about and supported this option. “When we got married, I was clear that I wanted to help children who didn’t have parents or couldn’t live with them,” she recalled.

And another woman, Clara, stated that the world of foster care remains largely unknown and that her involvement process has been very difficult. She said that over the years, eleven children have passed through her home, most of them babies with withdrawal symptoms—in other words, newborns born to mothers with addictions, who arrive with health problems. And like the previous speaker, Mariló and her family continue to commit to this work. “It’s not easy, but the love we give and receive makes up for everything,” she asserted.

The story of Exodus shows that women are the best defenders of life, that the heart rejects the death of the innocent, and that prudent reason finds a way to overcome unjust laws against life imposed by the enemies of freedom.